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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

V-day Review and a Wine Weekend

Hi everyone! Sorry I've been a bit MIA for the past few days but here I am, ready to share my weekend adventures. First things first, here's a glimpse at what my Valentine's Day looked like...cupcakes from two local bakeries, flowers from my husband and a student, cookies that served as table favors at my family's special meal, and a snapshot taken of my daughter and I at her school party.

This past weekend was also filled with some running, a trip to a winery and a whole bunch of relaxing. Fred and I found ourselves with no children on Saturday, so we decided to take advantage of the situation by heading out of town. We live in an area where there are quite a fewvineyards nestled together in what is called the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail. Last spring I posted about some of our trips during their March Madness event...you can catch themhere and here. Because one winery in particular is far off the beaten path, we jumped in the car and headed north to Galen Glen for a visit.

Galen Glen was hosting a Valentine's event where they paired their Barrel 29 port with a chocolate peanut butter tart. Holy moly, it was excellent...both the wine and the dessert! Barrel 29 has to be one of my favorite port varieties and in my opinion...chocolate and PB is the best flavor combination going.

Once we finished tasting, we left with a few bottles...some red and some white. After the visit to the winery, my husband suggested another stop on our journey, the Yuengling Brewery, for a tour. We weren't too far from Pottsville, PA, the home of Yuengling beer, so we headed that way. Neither of us have ever been to the brewery itself, but we did go to college with one of the Yuengling daughters. Plus, their Lager is Fred's favorite beer so it just felt right that we made a visit while we had the time.

While it sounded like a good idea in the moment, we should have checked to see if they were open for business. Apparently, thebrewery is only open for tours during the months of April through December. Fail on our part. :(

However, we were able to turn our trip to Pottsville into a good situation by stopping at this little pub for a drink and some snacks. Check out the cool {old} mural on the side of the building...

As for food, we split fried pickles with a spicy petal sauce and stuffed peppers with prosciutto and feta cheese.

After a few other stops, we met our friends {Sib and Jolene} at the Riverwalck Pub for some burgers and beers to wrap up the evening.

Sunday I woke up to frigid temperatures and windy conditions as I dressed for a longer run with the girls from Moravian. Luck was on our side because I truly think we ran at the best part of the day. As Sunday progressed it got windier and colder, so we were lucky and we covered almost nine miles in 70 minutes. Afterwards, we headed down to the gym for some hurdle mobility drills and plank exercises...75 seconds per side. Phew...!

Yep...that's ice on their shins! :)

Monday was a day off from school to honor Presidents' Day and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute. An extra day off gives me time to make meals for the week, catch up on laundry and relax just a little bit more. Plus, I was able to get in five miles before I started my day.Gotta love holiday breaks! Have a wonderful Tuesday...